Raising multilingual child(ren)

Having grown up bilingual and bicultural, I am quite determined to bring up June multilingual. From even before she was born, I have spoken English to her, while my husband speaks in Japanese. The nanny we had in France was francophone. Since moving to Jakarta, June has been going to a French daycare 3 days a week. In August, when daycare centres and preschools start again, we are planning on putting her in an English-speaking preschool 3 days a week and a French-speaking daycare 2 days a week. We will soon get a nanny, who will probably speak Bahasa Indonesia to her.

According to the Multilingual Children's Association, there are two most common language systems in multilingual families. The language system I grew up with was "Minority Language at Home", where Japanese was the language spoken and used at home. My parents refused to use English with me, even when it was clearly my preferred language; I am glad that they did, though, because I can speak Japanese fluently. With our daughter, we use the "One Person, One Language" system.

In my job, I work with and encounter multilingual people on a day-to-day basis. From my own experience and from observing others, I contend that there is no one who is "perfectly bi(multi)lingual". While it is true that many people are able to speak two or more languages with ease, it is very uncommon to find people who can use--that is, speak as well as write--two or more languages to the same level of sophistication. There are people who can write well, but I have yet to encounter anyone who can write flawlessly and sophisticated in two more languages, especially when it comes to things that are technical/scientific, and/or require a lot of expertise/specialized knowledge. I am not saying this is impossible--but very uncommon.

For me, it is important for June to have very strong English language skills. Sure, she should be able to speak Japanese fluently, so that she is able to communicate with her extended family members. It would also be nice if she could understand the language of her birth place, France. And of course she should learn the language of any country where she be living in--Bahasa Indonesia, for one. But ultimately, I would like for her to have solid English reading/writing skills, which I expect would be important and advantageous for her future.

Considering that in France, June spent most of her waking hours during the week in a French-speaking environment, and since our move to Indonesia, continues to be exposed to French on a regular basis, it is not a surprise to us that the first comprehensible word June uttered (aside from "mama" "papa", etc.) was French. Words she currently regularly uses are: tiens, de l'eau, doudou, dodo. She also speaks"words" that do not really mean anything in any of the three languages she is exposed to, but she has attributed fixed meanings to them. Since our move to Jakarta, I have noticed that June's English language skills are lagging behind--although I know she understands all languages quite well, her level of English comprehension is suffering, probably due to the fact that she is only exposed to it 1-2 hours a day.

It was thus a great joy to hear two days ago the first English word uttered by June: "apple". We probably would not have realized what she was saying, except for the fact that I was peeling an apple when she spoke the word.

I will be working on increasing June's vocabulary!



image taken from www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/HipparchusGraviation.htm